


New Earth

by fencingfox



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Episode: s02e25 Resolutions, F/M, Giving Birth, Made For Each Other, Why didn't they get together, srsly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-09-26 21:17:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20396308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fencingfox/pseuds/fencingfox
Summary: Chakotay and Kathryn find themselves on New Earth after the Doctor fails to find a cure for their illness. The two grow close, never thinking to be rescued. And certainly never while expecting.A little 'what if' AU.





	1. Did You Catch Anything to Build a Home?

**Author's Note:**

> I used some parts from the show. I own nothing. The story diverges from the show the most in Chapter 2.

The Captain, or rather Kathryn, tied her hair back with a simple broach this morning. It tumbles down her back and sways slightly as she works. 

"Catch anything?" Chakotay asks from behind her as he emerges from the woods. Kathryn shakes her head. 

"Just the same ones as yesterday, and they don't seem to carry the pathogen that's infected us." She pauses and regards him. "Where have you been?" 

"Oh, in the woods." 

"For the past two days, you've been spending a lot of time in the woods. Is something going on I should know about?" She wanted to know, but obviously she couldn't rely on her rank to make him tell her. But she guessed that if she did, he would anyway out of respect and habit. 

"Not yet." His mischievous smile looks a bit like Tom's. 

"Not yet? What's that supposed to mean?" She stands up and plants her hands on her hips. 

"It means when it's time for you to know, I'll tell you." 

"Don't I even get hints?" 

"I'm building something." _Building something?_

"Building. What could you be building? And why can't you tell me?" She asks with surprise. 

"You can't stand it, can you? You're like a little kid wheedling." 

"Tuvok to Janeway." Her commbadge chirps, interrupting whatever she'd planned to say. She presses it. 

"Janeway here." 

"We're about to move out of communications range. How are you faring?" His voice came over the comm a little staticly. 

"We're doing quite well. I'd like to speak to the crew now." 

"Your comm link has been put through to the entire ship." 

"This is Kathryn Janeway. I've never liked saying good bye, so I'll make this brief, but I want you all to know that serving as your captain has been the most extraordinary experience of my life. No captain could ask more than what this crew has given: bravery, compassion and strength of character. But I think what I'll miss most is the fun. The times we joked together, the games on the holodeck. I'll remember the laughter more than anything. Although Commander Chakotay and I won't be with you for the rest of your journey," she felt tears sting her eyes, "we know that you'll be the same steadfast crew for Mister Tuvok as you have been for us. We wish you a safe and a speedy journey home. Our thoughts will be with you. Janeway out." 

"Thank you, Captain, Commander. I am sure I speak for the entire crew when I say we will always remember your grace and courage. And I would like to add, it has been an honor serving with you. Live long and prosper." 

**=/\=**

"Kathryn Janeway's personal log, Stardate 49690.1. Day twenty four of our stay on the planet we've named New Earth. As yet I've been unable to make any progress in finding a cure for our illness, but a soak in the tub Chakotay built always helps me focus on possible solutions." She called back to the shelter. "Cha-ko-tay," she stressed the syllables in his name for fun, "are you there?" 

"No, I left an hour ago." She smiles and laughes to herself at his playfulness. 

"I was thinking. Maybe looking for protein cofactors is the wrong approach. Even if I can't find a specimen of the insect that infected us, I could try to learn something about the bio-molecular evolution of this planet's ecosystem." 

"Can't hurt to give it a try." 

"Chakotay!" She calls out when she hears a rustle near her. 

"What?" 

"Someone's in the woods!" She replies as she pulls herself out of the tub and gathers a towel around herself. Chakotay grabs a phaser and a flashlight and runs to join her. Kathryn points into the dark woods ahead of them when she sees him at her side like always. 

"Over there. It looks like some kind of primate." A monkey comes out of the woods and looks at them. Kathryn kneels and holds her hand out to him invitingly. 

"I've detected primate life signs here, but I've never seen one." 

"Hello. Are you hungry? Is that why you came here? I'm Kathryn," she tilts her head to her companion, "he's Chakotay. We've had to move into your neighborhood, but I hope we can be friends." The monkey climbs up the nearest tree with a screech. 

"Shoot, Maybe he'll come back." She stands up. 

"Looking for a pet?" His eyes look at her and stay locked on her body. She's holding the towel to her chest gingerly. If he just stepped a little closer and pulled, it would come to a pile at her feet. _And then what? She won't let you fuck her even though you are quite literally the last man on this planet._

"No. Looking for a clue about primate physiology on this planet. They must have to contend with insect bites too." She looks over at Chakotay and catches his gaze. Kathryn blushes. 

"Well, excuse me." He manages to excuse himself and goes back into the shelter. 

"Maybe we should be out looking for other primates. I might be missing something important." She says as she enters the shelter. He looks up from his seat behind the table at a fully clothed Kathryn. 

"Kathryn, the Doctor worked for weeks trying to find a treatment for this disease." 

"Yes?" It's a question. 

"You've been at it twelve hours a day, seven days a week since we got here, and we're still no closer to a cure than we were the day we were infected." 

"I'm not sure what you're getting at." She sits down at the table with him and admires his sand painting silently. 

"My people have a saying. Even the eagle must know when to sleep. Maybe it's time we both considered that." 

"You mean quit, give up?" There are a million reasons why she couldn't do that. Chakotay's gaze a few moments ago was one of them. 

"Why do you have to see it as defeat? Maybe it's simply accepting what life has dealt us, finding the good in it." Only he can make giving up sound noble. 

"There may be a day when I'll come to that, Chakotay, but, I'm a long way from it right now. I need to keep looking." 

**=/\=**

Chakotay runs a slip of sandpaper over a piece of wood while seated in a chair just outside the door to the shelter. Kathryn walks past him with her insect collecting gear strung over her shoulder. 

"I'm going to check the insect traps in beta four. What are you up to now?" 

"Making headboards." He stops for a moment to look at her. She thinks she sees a hint of a blush on his cheeks. _What did he have in mind for headboards?_

"Headboards?" 

"I've noticed you sometimes sit up in your bed to read. I figured you might as well have a comfortable backrest." _Nice save, Chakotay._

"That's very thoughtful of you, Chakotay. You've done so many things to make our lives easier here. The cooking, for example. I hate to cook." She makes a face. 

"But what I do makes you uncomfortable, doesn't it?" He leans forward in his chair and stops sanding. "Every time I do something that adds a personal touch to the shelter, you resist it." She can't deny that to him. 

"Sometimes it feels as though you've given up, that you're focused on making a home here instead of finding a cure that will let us leave." 

"I can't sacrifice the present waiting for a future that may never happen. The reality of this situation is that we may never leave here. So, yes, I'm trying to make a home. Something that's more than a plain, grey box." She wonders how much she figures into that home. 

"Someday I may have to let go. But not today, okay? I've tried a new glucose bait in the traps. I have a feeling this might be the day I make a breakthrough." Kathryn finds her first trap in the woods easily. But she hears rustles before she opens it. 

"Hello? Chakotay?" When he doesn't answer, she proceeds to empty the trap. When she finishes, she hears the monkey. "Hello again. Well, you certainly cover a lot of territory." She kneels in front of him with an outstretched hand. She wished she had something to offer him food-wise. It might win him over. "Or are you following me? Do you understand me?" The monkey points to the sky and makes a few noises at her as if he wants to tell her something. She doesn't understand and continues telling the monkey about her bugs. "There. Know what that is? That little insect just might be what gets me out of your backyard. What do you think of that, huh?" She looks up at the gathering storm clouds. "What is it? What's happened to the sky?" She looks back at the monkey who is now scratching the armpit of his upstretched arm. "If you're suggesting I should get out of here, I agree." She fights against strong gales as she makes her way back to the shelter, or at least she hopes she's going in the right direction. She very well could have been turned around by the storm. Then she hears Chakotay. 

"Kathryn! Kathryn. Are you hurt?" He comes to her side like he always will and helps support her. 

"No. I couldn't keep my balance and carry the case." 

"Give it to me." She hands the case to him and they make their way together back to where Chakotay came. 

"What's happening?" She asks. 

"It seems to be some kind of plasma storm. Our tricorders don't recognize it, but it sure packs a wallop." They make it to the shelter in one piece and scramble inside. Remembering tornado drills during her youth in Indiana, she gestures to the table and Chakotay moves under it. She follows, pressing her back to him. She can feel his warmth radiate off him and it makes her a little uncomfortable, but she can hide it in her dismay over the destruction of their shelter. Things fall and crash to make sounds like broken glass. 

"Oh, no!" She says breathlessly. Chakotay hugs her a little closer. 


	2. When the Storm Passes, Another Forms

"Let's check outside. Maybe some of the insect traps are still intact," he says after they clear the damaged keepsakes to check the science equipment inside. 

"None of this is salvageable either. There's no way I can continue to do my research." 

"I'm sorry." He sounds genuine. 

"Well, that's one way of letting go." She stops working a moment to look around them at the havoc. Branches as wide as her litter the area. Some are on the roof. Others are draped over her equipment. One is even in her tub. She pulls it out with some difficulty. 

"I've been thinking. There's plenty of wood available here. I could probably add rooms to the shelter, give us a little more living space," Chakotay says after a moment of silence. 

"How would you mill it?" 

"I could do a certain amount with a phaser, but I was actually thinking of logs." 

"As in log cabin?" He is trying to make the place downright homely. 

"I built a few of them when I was growing up. My father thought it was important that I learn how." 

"When I was young, my parents took us on backpacking trips. They thought we should all keep a connection to our pioneer roots. I hated it. No bed, no replicator." 

"No bathtub." He adds for her. 

"No bathtub." She agrees. "I guess I was always a child of the twenty-fourth century." 

"Well, maybe those camping trips helped prepare you for life here." 

"Oh, no. Life here is much better than that." 

"I think that's the first time I've heard you say anything positive about being here." Kathryn spots the monkey before it begins to chatter at her. 

"Well, hello there. I haven't seen you in a while. Where have you been?" She holds a hand out for him and feels Chakotay come up behind her. 

"Do you expect him to answer you?" He asks from her left. 

"Not really. I just sense intelligence in him, and I could _swear_ he came to warn me about the plasma storm. Come here, fella. Come on." 

"I doubt that he can be domesticated, at least not very easily." The monkey turns and climbs the nearest tree. She stands and watches it go up at record pace. 

"Well, we have plenty of time. The rest of our lives." 

"That's a long time. At least I hope so," Chakotay says. Kathryn turns to look at him. 

"Well, I can't give you orders anymore but I suggest we get back to work." 

"Aye, aye, Captain," he replies in mock formality. At the end of the day, Kathryn sits at the table where Chakotay is reading. She sets the PADD down that she was using and rubs at her shoulders. She rolls her neck slowly to work out the kinks. 

"I guess I'm not used to that kind of work." She groans. "My knots are getting knots." 

"Here, let me help." She feels him lift her hair and stroke it by the soft pressure on her scalp. She half expects him to smell it before he moves it over her shoulder, but he doesn't. His thumbs then dig into her shoulders. 

"Oh, that feels good." She hums. 

"I've had a lot of practice at this. My mother used to get sore necks all the time. I was the only one she'd trust not to make it worse." Kathryn feels her stomach turn. It doesn't turn from his words, but from his actions. He leaned forward to talk to her and now his breath is on her ear, tempting her. She rises to her feet abruptly. 

"That's much better. Thank you. Well, I'm going to go to bed now. I'll see you in the morning." 

"Sleep well, Kathryn." She turns to the bedroom before he can see her blushing hopefully. 

"Yes. You too." Chakotay calls to her back, somewhat startled. _What did I do?_ Kathryn tosses and turns in her bed before giving up and getting out. She pads over to Chakotay and sits across from him. 

"We have to talk about this." She's sure she doesn't need to be specific, not after the way he looked at her in that towel, or how he held her close during the storm. 

"All right." He sets down the PADD. 

"I think we need to define some parameters about us." 

"I'm not sure I can define parameters. But I can tell you a story, an ancient legend among my people. It's about an angry warrior who lived his life in conflict with the rest of his tribe, a man who couldn't find peace, even with the help of his spirit guide. For years, he struggled with his discontent. But the only satisfaction he ever got came when he was in battle. This made him a hero among his tribe, but the warrior still longed for peace within himself. One day he and his war party were captured by a neighboring tribe led by a woman warrior. She called on him to join her because her tribe was too small and weak to defend itself from all its enemies. The woman warrior was brave and beautiful and very wise. The angry warrior swore to himself that he would stay by her side, doing whatever he could to make her burden lighter. From that point on, her needs would come first. And in that way, the warrior began to know the true meaning of peace." 

"Is that really an ancient legend?" 

"No. But that made it easier to say." She reaches up to brush her thumb against his out of curiosity. _Purely scientific_, she tells herself as she stands a little to lean over the table to kiss him. He kisses back, slow and gentle at first, but soon picks up on her desire and converts it to his own. They're standing now. His arms wrapping around her body, her legs straddling one of his thighs. Her eyes flutter open and closed again when he presses her against a wall, making the whole shelter shudder. Hands fly below her nightshirt and hike it up to her stomach. One hand holds it there while the other slides up and down the outside of her thigh, then the inside and then brushes against her mound, making her shudder. She breaks the kiss to look at him then. He worries he went too far. He lets his hand drop her night shirt and braces himself against the wall with his hands on either side of her head. She looks up at him. Fingers trace her angry warrior's tattoo. 

"I know I haven't been the best to you, Chakotay." He makes a move to speak, but she places three fingers over his lips to shush him. "It's true. I've-" she searches his eyes. "I've had feelings for you for a long time. And I didn't act on them, couldn't I told myself. I couldn't for the sake of _Voyager_. I drummed up all these bad scenarios that left one or both of us incapable of commanding a starship. But I can see now that you'd never let something like that happen. I just can't believe it took a deadly bug to make me see it." She pulls her hands from his lips, asking him to say something with her eyes probing his. 

"I love you, Kathryn." He dips his head to rest his nose and forehead against hers. "Have since I met you." Her stomach flutters and she smiles. 

"I love you too, Cha-ko-tay," she draws out the musical syllables of his name when she speaks. She slips under his arm then. He watches incredulously as she pulls her night shirt off of herself and drops it to the floor. Her breasts watch him. He looks back to her eyes in time to see them grow dark with lust. She turns and sways toward the bedroom. He watches her form through the partition. He sees her lay on her bed on her back. "Are you coming or did I break you already?" Chakotay gathers his wits. 

"You almost did." He pulls off his shirt, steps out of his shoes as he's walking—_why do I wear so many clothes_—and finally stops to shed himself of his pants and boxers at the foot of her bed. He doesn't take his eyes off of her. They trace down her curves, across her breasts, over her slightly rounded stomach down her pelvic bone and along her long sinewy legs. "My God, woman. You're beautiful." 

"Why don't you come here and show me?" She purrs. He groans as he crawls over her body. Their lips meet for a second time tonight. Her hands tangle in his short hair. His hand finds a rounded mound and latches on to kneed it. She moans softly into the kiss, leaving her lips parted for him to penetrate. Chakotay deepens their kiss for a moment before pulling away to place kisses and nibbles on her neck. Her squirming causes her to brush against his growing erection and he pauses to groan as he realizes just how long it has been. 

"Kathryn," he sighs, reveling in her scent and soft skin. He thinks she's wearing perfume: sunflowers. 

"Make me yours, Cha-ko-tay." _Oh I will!_ His lips resume their course and kiss down her body. They latch onto a nipple and suck aggressively, pulling her skin almost painfully into his mouth and up into the air. She moans. "Easy, easy," she asks as she pets his hair. He mumbles a sorry when he loosens his grip. He spends a few more minutes there before moving to her other nipple. Once both nipples are firm, he moves down her body, placing kisses in a zigzagging pattern. He knows he reaches his destination when the musky scent of her arousal invades his nostrils. She smells delightful. He presses a kiss to her clitoris before wrapping his lips around it. She moans as he swirls his tongue around it and lets his teeth lightly graze her. He licks; he sucks; he prods; he swirls. Soon she's bucking against him uncontrollably and he feels her shudder as her orgasm takes her under. Her lips carry his name and he swells with pride. _That's right, I made you come. Can't anyone do it better._ His cock feels uncomfortably hard, but he wants to make sure she's ready for him. His fingers find her entry and he sticks a finger in. 

"What are you waiting for?" She asks impatiently. He isn't sure, his finger doesn't even touch the walls of her vagina. "Oh, Chakotay, I want you inside me so _bad_," she practically moans as she squirms invitingly. He feels his stomach lurch at her sultry voice. Chakotay removes his finger and moves his body up hers to a place a little higher than he normally would since he noticed that her clitoris is pretty high up. He presses himself into her awaiting vagina and feels her muscles squeeze around him gloriously. He leans down to kiss her in gratitude. He begins thrusting in and out of her. His position on her stomach lets his cock rub her clitoris even if he can't penetrate as deeply. He doesn't care; her pleasure is all he wants. She's breathing faster after a long while. Chakotay is surprised he is lasting as long as he is. He writes it up to willpower and a strong desire to deliver. He's sweating. The skin between them is drenched in sweat to make his motions easier. She's rocking against him to urge her orgasm along sooner before it disappears. Chakotay pushes his exhausted hips to move faster and presses himself harder against her. She gasps and her nails dig into his shoulders. They'd given up on kissing when he'd picked his pace up too much. Now his head rests at the crevice of her neck and shoulder. He bites down just to hear her cry out. He is not disappointed. The bite and his closeness where his woodsy scent can envelop her drags her over the edge at that moment. She's shuddering, squeezing her legs tight together and pressing her pelvis up to him. The changed position places extra pressure on Chakotay's engorged penis. With a shudder of his own, he releases his seed into her awaiting body. The pulse of seed leaving his body feels exquisite. Chakotay wishes he can stay in that moment forever, or better yet, repeat that moment indefinitely with her. 


	3. Two Heads are Better Than One; Three make the Work Disappear

"How are they coming?" Chakotay asks as he steps out of the shelter and watches her. Their previous night comes to mind. He can picture her without the dress. He almost wishes she would tend to the tomatoes nude, but given her fair complexion and the bright sun, he decides that wouldn't be a good idea. 

"Very nicely. We should have vine-ripened Talaxian tomatoes in a couple of months, unless this planet has the equivalent of tomato bugs." She makes a face. "Oh, they're awful." 

"I would never have thought of you as a gardener." There are a number of things he would never have thought of her. Last night was one of those. 

"I grew up around farmers. My parents insisted we learn some basic gardening skills." 

"Did you hate that as much as camping?" 

"Of course. Who wanted to muck around in the dirt when you could be studying quantum mechanics? But I find it very satisfying now, watching the seeds sprout and grow." 

"If your tomatoes could spare you for a minute, I'd like your opinion on something in the house." 

"Well, you've come to the right person. I always have an opinion." 

"Really?" Chakotay leads her to the computer on the desk and presses a random button to make the screen light up for her. "What do you think?" 

"A boat!" Her face lights up like he'd just pressed the right button on her. 

"You said you wanted to explore the river. I think I could build this," he replies, smiling. 

"We could go on a camping trip." She sounds as excited a kid in a candy store. 

"I'm not sure we could fit the bathtub in the boat," he warns teasingly. 

"Well, that's all right. I'll have the river." He'd like to see that. 

"When will you start?" 

"As soon as you'll let me." She slaps his shoulder playfully. 

"Well go already!" 

"Aye, aye, Captain." He smirks as he stands up. He rises a full head taller than her and can't resist the lure of her lips. Before heading out the door, he swoops down to kiss her, taking her small body into his arms with pride. He couldn't ask for a better woman warrior. 

Chakotay breaks their kiss to head outside to select a good tree to carve out. He finds one before it gets dark, marks it, and then retraces his steps back to the shelter, vowing to cut it down the next day. His woman warrior is waiting for him, nude, in her bed when he returns. 

**=/\=**

"How are you?" Chakotay asks the woman in his arms as he feels her stir. He'd taken a short break from the boat to build a platform to spread under their newly replicated king mattress. She didn't complain that he had. She groans softly. 

"Not well actually. Oh." She sits up and holds her stomach. It currently thinks it's funny to play tricks on her. "I need something to eat, crackers and soda water probably. My stomach hurts." Chakotay frowns. It was the third day this week that she'd complained of an upset stomach. 

"Maybe the virus is back?" She shakes her head. 

"I don't think so; you aren't feeling bad are you?" 

"No. But maybe it acts differently in women than men." His comment causes something to click in her mind. There are several things that act differently in women than men. _When did I last have a birth control booster? When did I last have my period?_ She stands up so suddenly that she startles both her stomach and Chakotay. She goes to the medical kit in the other room. Chakotay watches her form through the sheer separator. He can see her rummaging through a bag. "What are you looking for?" He hears the tell-tale beeps of a medical tricorder in use. Then he hears her gasp. 

"Oh my...." Concerned, he throws the covers off of him and sprints to join her. His arms wrap around her body as he tries to peer at the tricorder's readings. 

"What is it? Are you alright?" 

"_We_ are just fine. All four of us." Realization dawns on Chakotay after a moment. He uses a hand to tilt the tricorder to him and gasps himself. 

"You're pregnant? With triplets?" She nods silently. "How? Don't you get a booster?" She nods again. 

"I do. I did, three months ago." She shrugs. "It's not like we had any here. This would have happened eventually." She returns the scanner to the back of the tricorder and drops it in the bag in front of her. She twists around. "Marry me, Chakotay? Raise these children with me." The reality of the situation dawns on him. 

"Yes, but how?" 

"Do you take me to be your lawfully wedded wife," Chakotay puts some distance between them as he catches on. "to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy law?" 

"I do." 

"As do I, husband." She smiles and then adds. "You may kiss the bride." And kiss her he does. They break their embrace when they hear static from behind them. 

"Do you read me? Repeat." 

"Do you hear that?" Kathryn asks. 

"Yes." Chakotay releases her and goes to the shelf near their bedroom to grab the commbadges. He places them on the table in front of Kathryn. 

"To Captain Janeway, do you read me? This is Tuvok calling Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay. Please respond." She taps the commbadge emitting Tuvok's voice with surprise. 

"This is Janeway." 

"Captain, it's good to hear your voice. We have news." 

"What is it?" 

"We have medicine which we believe will effectively treat your condition. We plan to be in orbit within thirty hours." They share a concerned look with each other. When the line goes silent, Chakotay talks. 

"What do we do?" 

"We go back to _Voyager_. I-" It pained her to say it. "I ask the Doctor to abort the triplets and we go on." 

"No." He holds her hands. "I don't want you to do that. I want to meet our children. Don't you?" She looks away from his penetrating gaze. 

"I do, but, I'm the _Captain_. And you're the First Officer. We don't have the time to raise three kids at once." Chakotay shakes his head. 

"I don't believe for one second that the crew won't support us. They love you and they tolerate me." She glowered at him at that. "They'll help us raise them. It takes a village after all." 

"A starship is no place for children," she states plainly. Chakotay can't believe she's fighting him on this. Although, he should have expected as such. 

"Naomi has turned out just fine." That settles it. Kathryn, the Captain of _Voyager_, looks into the eyes of her husband, First Officer, and angry warrior. Their lives are now entwined more than she ever expected them to. 

**=/\=**

"Welcome back, Captain, Commander," Tuvok address them as they walk onto the bridge together. Chakotay wanted to hold her hand as they entered but she convinced him not to. They would have plenty of time to break their news to the crew. She has no illusions about the tenuous nature of her pregnancy. She isn't young; she could self-abort the pregnancy in a heartbeat. She'll wait till her second trimester to tell the crew. That's when she'll tell them they are married, too. Maybe they can have a small ceremony. 

"The Doctor tells me you contacted the Vidiians after all." She addresses everyone because she has no doubt it was a group effort but it is Tuvok who answers. 

"I disobeyed your order, Captain. I am prepared to accept the consequences." _Noble of him as always._

"If I didn't know you better, I'd say your decision was almost emotional." She smirks, feeling like her old self. "Thank you all." She moves to take her seat. Chakotay follows her. "Well, we've lost time with all this. Let's see if we can make some of it up. Mister Paris, warp eight." 

"Aye, Captain." Paris turns back to the helm and pushes _Voyager_ toward warp eight. 

"Commander, we'll need to review the ship's systems. I'll handle propulsion, environmental and communication. You'll be responsible for sensors, weapons and transporters." 

"Aye, Captain. I'll have a report to you by eighteen hundred hours." He replies as he presses some buttons on the console between them. 

"Check with phaser maintenance. See if they solved that problem with the pre-fire chamber temperature." He leans away from the console and Kathryn mourns the loss of body heat. 

"Yes, ma'am. I'll see to it." She glances at the console and sees writing displayed as Chakotay turns to face forward. 

:: How are you? :: 

She looks over at her secret husband and leans to the console to type her reply. They'd done this a few times with confidential information. She is glad he treats her pregnancy as confidential. 

:: Fine. Uneasy and scared. :: 

:: Me too. You should see the Doctor after this shift. :: 

She shakes her head when she reads his suggestion. 

:: I don't want to bother him. :: 

He types something, leans away for a moment, leans back, and adds something to his message while wearing a sour expression. 

:: Bother him? It's his job in case you forgot. Do you want to abort them? :: 

She has to think about it for a moment and finds herself as torn as she was on the planet. 

:: I don't know what kind of life we can give them here. :: 

His laugh draws the inquisitive looks of Tuvok at the security station and B'Elanna at the engineering station when he leans over to read and respond. As she has in the past a few times, B'Elanna abandons her acquired Starfleet principles—they are an acquired taste after all—and hacks into the command team's console to read their messages. She doesn't quite understand until she reads Chakotay's final message. 

:: If they're children of yours, they'll revel in being raised on a starship among the stars. :: 


	4. A Voyage to the Heart and Back

After her shift, the Captain discreetly makes her way to the Doctor. She had denied his physical examination of her after administering the antidote. She and he both knew from her slowed breathing that it was having the desired effect. She activates the Doctor when she steps inside and listens impatiently to his less than welcoming message. 

"Doctor, I need a prenatal exam." He looks at her with a puzzled expression but fishes out a medical tricorder anyway. He scans her stomach and the tricorder registers three lifeforms inside her. 

"When did this happen?" 

"On the planet, a few weeks before you came back for us." 

"Chakotay?" A rebellious urge controls her. 

"No, the monkey." The Doctor doesn't question her. She raises a hand to her forehead and rubs her temple with her forefinger. "Yes, Chakotay is the father." He looks wary as if he doesn't know how to respond. Eventually he speaks. 

"Did you come here to abort your brood?" She shakes her head. _Why does everyone think that I want an abortion?_

"No. I want some vitamins for them. You know better than I that I'm not the greatest when it comes to caring for my body." Her voice grows quiet. "I don't want to lose them." The Doctor loads a spare hypospray with the appropriate prenatal vitamins and unloads them into her neck. As the hypospray releases its load on her, the doors to Sick Bay open. 

"Doctor, I'm here for your weekly diagnostic." B'Elanna looks up to see the Doctor administering something to the Captain and she stops short, remembering the conversation she witnessed. "Captain. What a surprise." She cocks her head to the side. "Are you well?" The Captain nods as the Doctor backs away. 

"Yes." 

"Then this is about...your package?" 

"My what?" B'Elanna looks pointedly at her stomach, imagining that she can see it has already grown since this morning. The Captain's hands flutter protectively to her stomach. 

"Oh, them," she chuckles. "How did you find out?" 

"Superior Klingon sight." 

"Klingon's don't possess—" B'Elanna's glare cuts him off, "sight superior to Vulcans." 

"_Them?_" Kathryn smiles sheepishly and wiggles three fingers of her right hand. 

"Triplets." B'Elanna's eyes grow wide with shock as she rushes to embrace her Captain who responds with a soft 'oof'. 

"Congratulations!" She breaks the hug. "I'm assuming it was Chakotay then?" Kathryn nods. "Wow, he's always wanted children. Does he know?" Kathryn nods. 

"We found out just before Tuvok called." It feels good to share her news beyond Chakotay. B'Elanna's smile tells her that he was right about the crew supporting them. B'Elanna laughs. 

"That must have been a shock!" 

"It was," she replies solemnly as she recalls the proceeding conversation with Chakotay. 

"When are you going to tell the crew? Oh! Let me plan you a baby shower? Everyone will be so happy! I've got to tell Tom." 

"Woah, slow down. I'm, well, I'm _old_. I could lose them still." Sympathy washes over the young engineer's face. "I don't want to spread the news until my second trimester. We'll be safer then." The Doctor approaches her with a PADD and offers it to her. 

"You may not have that long. Triplets will make your body very large very quickly." She hadn't thought of that and takes the PADD from his hands. Kathryn glares at the title: **Prenatal Nutrition**. _No need to rub it in, Doctor...._

"Well, I'll take all I can get." She turns her attention to B'Elanna. "You can tell Tom," she says this because she doesn't think B'Elanna can keep a secret from her husband, "but don't let him tell anyone else." 

"Yes, ...Mother." She smirks and manages to step away fast enough that Kathryn can't swat her. She merely glowers at her chief engineer, wondering if it is too late to place Carey in charge of engineering. Kathryn shakes her head at the thought and leaves Sick Bay. Once gone, B'Elanna approaches the Doctor and opens her kit on the nearby biobed. 

**=/\=**

"Pregnant!? Seriously?" B'Elanna nods over their shared meal. She'd opted for a replicator meal in their shared quarters—she wonders if Chakotay and Kathryn will share their quarters—to tell Tom about the Captain's news. 

"With triplets." 

"Holy...wow." B'Elanna snickers. 

"Holy wow?" 

"Well, what else should I say?" 

"How about, 'Daaaamn, Chakotay tapped that ass'." 

"Daaaamn, Chakotay _tapped_ that ass." B'Elanna laughs at her husband's obscene hip thrust midway through his sentence. _How am I married to this pig?_ The thought that she is just as piggish crosses her mind. She snooped on Chakotay and Kathryn during an obviously intimate conversation after all. "Think they'll be alright?" He asks with a serious tone. She waves his concern away like only she could. 

"The Doctor will make sure nothing happens to them. Chakotay too. Wow, Chakotay a father." She leans in suggestively. "...You know, we made a drunk pact once that if we were both single and childless by thirty-five, I'd have his children." Tom guffaws. 

"No!" 

"Yes." She leans back in her chair. "I was beginning to feel bad about it when we got married. He mentioned it before he walked me down the aisle. Said he'd have to find another unsuspecting half-Klingon to bear him children." 

"Half-Klingon?" 

"He said half-Klingons are funny when they are mad." 

"Let me guess, you got mad." 

"I punched him and didn't feel bad anymore." 

"Too bad he's right. Half-Klingons are funny when they're mad. They think they look intimidating at 5'5" when really they just look adorable—like a kitten raising her haunches and jumping sideways." B'Elanna kicks him under the table with a glare. He yelps. "Hey, don't scratch me," he teases her. _He's lucky I want children otherwise I'd castrate him now._

"Now that the Captain is going to have children, I expect the rest of the crew will join her." Tom wiggles his eyebrows at her and delivered a Tom Paris patented smirk. 

"Do you want to join her? I can give you a baby." She gives it some thought and then shrugs. 

"Sure, why not?" Tom's face returns to neutral. 

"That's it? A shrug and then 'sure, why not?' Aren't you a little worried?" 

"Yes, but I imagine I would be even if we were safe on Earth. You do want children right?" 

"Oh, tons! I want my own hockey team." B'Elanna laughs. 

"How many is that again?" 

"Just twenty." 

"Well, we'd better get busy then," she purred as she stood. She grabs Tom's tie and pulls him up to her toward the bed. "Who knows, maybe we can make twins." 

"I'm sure we can ask the Doctor for some assistance there, Be'." 


	5. His Sunflower

"My feet, Chakotay," she groans as she lifts them out of her boots and props them on a pillow on her bed. She is too big to pull her boots off with her hand so instead she toed them off her feet one at a time. 

"Coming, sunflower." Chakotay emerges from their shared bathroom with two wet and steaming hand towels. He wraps each of her feet in one and squeezes her feet over the towels to force the warmth into her. She is ready to burst any minute. B'Elanna had already birthed Miral—the half-Klingon only carried her for seven months. B'Elanna wished her luck. When Kathryn asked why, she told her that she'd gotten pregnant the night she found out about Kathryn's pregnancy. Given that she was already six weeks pregnant when she found out in the first place, Kathryn only has half a month to go if she is lucky. The Doctor warned her that multiple births often come early, especially in the case of older, first-time mothers. She was feeling especially prickly that morning and glared at him for his comment on her age before Chakotay soothed her by calling her his sunflower. Chakotay moves to sit by her side and rubd her stomach the way she likes it. She hums softly and then gasps when she feels a kick at Chakotay's hand. He chuckles. 

"They're anxious to leave," she says plainly. 

"I imagine it's pretty crowded in there. You know, you never did tell me what you thought of the names I gave you." She shrugs. They'd decided not to ask the Doctor for their genders. 

"There are too many variables. Could be all boys, all girls, or a mix." 

"I chose mostly gender neutral names." She makes a face. 

"I don't like gender neutral names." 

"See I didn't know that. Now you're ready to pop and we have no names." 

"I like Alanah." He nods appreciatively. 

"Me too. I like Misae." 

"ME-sigh. I like it." 

"There, now we have two names. I think we should come up with three names for each gender in case." 

"I agree—oh." She feels a sharp pain and grasps her stomach. _Already?_ Chakotay feels her stomach clench under his hand. 

"That wasn't a kick was it?" 

"No, call the Doctor." She sits up with Chakotay's help and kicks off the towels. He thinks she's very calm for someone about to deliver three babies. 

"Chakotay to the Doctor. Kathryn is going into labor." 

"Bring her straight away and time her contractions." He helps Kathryn to her feet. She is wobbly but able to stand. He leads her toward Sick Bay slowly. They stop every few doors to breath through a contraction. He breathes with her in solidarity. Chakotay time her contractions at seven minutes apart. With the Doctor's and Kes's help, Chakotay manages to lay Kathryn on a biobed in Sick Bay. The Doctor checks to see how dilated she is. 

"Two centimeters, Captain." She resists the ridiculous urge to thank him as she would if she were truly the Captain in this moment. 

"I'm Kathryn right now. Drop the title," she spits. 

"Alright Kathryn. Keep breathing. I'll measure you again in thirty minutes." Chakotay comes into view. He brushes some stray hair from her mouth as she breathes two in and two out breaths quickly. 

"You're doing great, sunflower. What other names do you like?" He asks her since she isn't roaring yet. 

"Lus, it's flower in Irish." 

"It's beautiful." 

"How about Matthew?" She shakes her head and bites back a screech. 

"It's too much like Mark." 

"Alrighty." He smooths her hair back. "I like Okena. It's a boy's name." 

"It's good." Her face contorts in pain as the contraction comes sooner than she expected. Chakotay notes that she is down to six minutes. "Do you like Shay?" Chakotay squeezes her hand and nods. He won't say no to her now anyway. 

"It's beautiful. Tokala?" 

"That's a great one. That's six right?" 

"Yes. For girls we have: Alanah, Lus, and Shay. For boys we have Misae, Okena, and Tokala." She nods and continues to breathe through another contraction. _That was quick._ He looks over at the Doctor and gestures for him to come over even though thirty minutes have not passed. The Doctor takes his position and reaches into Kathryn with two fingers. They slip into the puckered lips of her cervix with room to spare. 

"They're all beautiful," Kes praises as she pats Kathryn's forehead with a cool cloth. 

"Seven centimeters. Almost there. I need to puncture your water to speed this along. Do you want an epidural?" Kathryn nods. The Doctor presses a few buttons on the side of her bed. A slim tube is released. He attaches a needle to it, presses it through her inner elbow skin, and bids the biobed to dispense the epidural. Then he moves between her legs with something that resembles a sterile crochet hook and presses lightly against her water until it burst. He pulls the hook away quickly to avoid puncturing a baby's head. 

"I need to turn over." Chakotay backs away and helps his wife go onto her hands and knees. Her stomach hangs precariously under her. He wraps his arms around her head and shoulder, holding her to his chest. He kisses the back of her head. 

"I love you, Kathryn." 

"I love you, too." Then she roars. When the immediate pain subsides, she speaks. "Doctor! Can I push yet? I _need_ to." The Doctor repositions himself so that he can measure her again. This time he uses a mirror with black circles denoting centimeters on it to look up her vagina. He doesn't want to risk having her push prematurely, especially with three infants. 

"Almost. One centimeter to go." Kathryn screams and then cries through her next contraction. Being off of her back and having the epidural helps some, though she imagines that the epidural will take a while to work fully. "Okay, on the next one, you can push. Bear down on it." She nods. Her face is flush from her ordeal already. Strings of hair hang down and tickle her face. Much to her pleasure, Chakotay gathers her hair around her face and holds it over her head. She feels the beginnings of a contraction. When its force hits her, she pushes down with a long groan. "Good, I feel the head." Kes stands ready next to the Doctor with a towel. She will have to work quickly to clean each baby. She sees it as practice for her own elogium. Ocampan typically have children in pairs, either twins or quadruplets. 

Kathryn groans through another contraction and pushes. The Doctor guides the first baby's head out, careful not to cover its mouth or nose. On the next push, a shoulder pops free and the baby rotates to the side. The next one pushes the baby out a little further. Then, on the next, the baby's second shoulder pops out and the Doctor frees him from Kathryn. "A boy!" He calls out as he clamps the umbilical cord in two places and snips it between them quickly before handing the baby to Kes. The second baby is already crowning when he turns back to Kathryn. In two more pushes, a healthy baby girl emerges. She is smaller than her brother but not by much. "This is a girl!" He repeats the umbilical snipping with her and hands her to Kes who had left the boy in his own crib. Kathryn stops to breathe through her contraction. She is exhausted and she hasn't heard her children cry yet. Just as she is thinking that, she hears a soft sob. One of them is going to be alright. She bears down on it like the Doctor instructed. Having been stretched by the first two births, she thinks this one comes out easier. It only takes two pushes for the final baby to leave her. The Doctor snips his umbilical cord and hands him to Kes before returning to deliver Kathryn's afterbirth. "A healthy boy." She delivers the afterbirth on the next contraction. Chakotay, who'd been still the entire time, rubs his wife's shoulders. 

"We did it." 

"What do you mean 'we'?" He chuckles. She is as prickly as B'Elanna these days and that's saying something as B'Elanna's own pregnancy had Tom arriving on shift regularly with numerous bruises and cuts. 

"Fine, you." She turns back over and lays down. "I want to see them." Kes brings the first boy over to her. Kathryn takes him into her arms. 

"Your first born." She coos at her baby, bouncing her arms up and down before looking up at Chakotay. 

"Misae," they say together. She hands Misae to Chakotay as Kes brings their daughter to her. 

"Your baby girl." She bounces her crying daughter up and down until she stops crying. 

"Hi, Lus." Chakotay nods his agreement. 

"Isn't she beautiful?" Misae cries at his father's compliment. He chuckles and bounces him too. Kes comes over with the last boy and tilts her arms to show him to them. He isn't crying. Aside from his first short outburst, he is silently watching the world around him. Kathryn reaches a hand out to him and pets his cheek. 

"You're quiet, Tokala." 

"It suits him." He explains when she looked at him confused. "Tokala means fox." She nods. 

"It does then. What does Misae mean?" 

"White sun." She looks at her brown son and crinkles her nose. 

"He's not very white, is he?" Chakotay laughs. 

"No, it's more like pure than it is like the color." 

"Is it safe to come in?" The Doctor mercifully throws a blanket over Kathryn's lower body before Tom can see any more than he needs to. B'Elanna peers beside him with Miral in hand. 

"How'd you know to find us?" 

"The whole ship knew you were in labor, Captain." Tom offers to take Tokala from Kes. She hands the blanketed and silent baby to him. Tom misses when Miral was this small. He coos at Tokala who grabs his nose playfully. 

"You woke Miral; we're right upstairs." B'Elanna adds when she sees her Captain flush with embarrassment. 

"Sorry." 

"It's fine. A good yell is the best thing." B'Elanna advises. Kathryn nods when she remembers that she could hear B'Elanna clear from the bridge when she gave birth to Miral. She wonders if the ridges hurt her. B'Elanna holds the alert Miral to look at the three infants. She doesn't seem sure where to look first. Kathryn decides to help her. She points to the baby in Chakotay's arms. 

"That's my oldest by-" 

"thirty-two seconds," the Doctor points to her daughter, "and two minutes fifteen." The Doctor supplies as he points to her other son. 

"He's Misae." She tilts her daughter toward Miral. The girl turns to look at Miral as Miral looks at her. Miral claps her hands excitedly and startles Lus who turns toward her mother with a soft sob. 

"You just spooked my daughter, Lus. But I'm sure you'll still be good friends." Already Lus is turning back toward Miral. Tom holds Tokala toward Miral. She reaches out to touch his hand on her father's nose as he watches silently. "And that's Tokala; he's much quieter than you," she says with a grin.


End file.
